The Falcons have hired Shawn Heinlen as director of college scouting, the team announced Wednesday.
Heinlen, who is entering his 27th year in the league, spent the past four seasons as an area scout with the Browns.
After a brief stint as a consultant for the Reese’s Senior Bowl from 2017-18, he served four seasons as a southwest area scout for the Eagles.
Heinlen was with the Bills for 16 seasons, starting his NFL career as a training camp intern for them in 1999.
Heinlen joined the league office as a player personnel analyst in 2000 before returning to Buffalo in 2001 as a college scouting administrator for three seasons (2001-03). He then served as a college area scout for the club from 2003-17.
Falcons Clips
The Browns hired Mike Rutenberg as their defensive coordinator this week and Rutenberg got a rave review from Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich on his way out the door in Atlanta.
Rutenberg was the defensive pass game coordinator in Atlanta last season and he spent the previous four seasons as the linebackers coach for the Jets. Ulbrich was the defensive coordinator there as well and Ulbrich lavished praise on Rutenberg when asked about his longtime colleague at a press conference last week.
“He’s one of the best teachers in this league,” Ulbrich said, via Josh Kendall of TheAthletic.com. “He understands the back end at a PhD-plus level. He’s a huge part of our success back there. Whether he gets a coordinator job this season or next, it’s inevitable. He’s too good a coach.”
The Browns job is Rutenberg’s first shot at being a coordinator and success in Cleveland could set him up to rise even higher up the coaching ladder in the years to come.
The 49ers are hiring veteran defensive backs coach Jerry Gray, Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports reports.
Gray was assistant head coach/defense for Atlanta for the past three years.
It is unclear what his role will be with the 49ers, but he reunites with Raheem Morris. Morris, the former head coach of the Falcons, is now the 49ers’ defensive coordinator.
Gray was a four-time Pro Bowl defensive back in nine seasons as a player, including seven years with the Rams. He began his coaching career immediately after his playing career.
He has nearly 30 years of NFL coaching experience, working at Tennessee, Buffalo, Washington Seattle, Minnesota, Green Bay and Atlanta. Gray was defensive coordinator with the Titans (2011-13) and Bills (2001-05).
After the resignation of Jim Schwartz, the Browns have found their next defensive coordinator.
According to multiple reports, the club is hiring Falcons defensive passing game coordinator Mike Rutenberg for the role.
Rutenberg, 44, was set to continue on the Falcons’ staff in 2026 with retained defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich after Atlanta hired Kevin Stefanski as head coach. Now Rutenberg will head to Cleveland, where he will work under Stefanski’s replacement, new head coach Todd Monken.
Rutenberg spent 2013-2019 as a defensive assistant for the Jaguars, serving as assistant linebackers coach for his last two years with the club. He was hired as a passing game specialist for the 49ers in 2020 before heading to the Jets with former head coach Robert Saleh as the club’s linebackers coach from 2021-2024. He then followed Ulbrich to the Falcons in 2025.
Monken has said he would like the Browns to retain the same scheme that Schwartz ran, given its effectiveness. But with Rutenberg as the hire instead of someone internal, there may be some philosophical shifts to come.
The 2025 season ended eight days ago. In one day, the first significant moment toward the refinement of rosters for 2026 arrives.
The annual two-week window for applying the franchise tag opens on Tuesday, February 17.
As some have suggested in the past, the only day that really matters is the last day for applying the tag (March 3). But with the Scouting Combine (a/k/a Tampering Central) coming next week, some teams may be inclined to apply the tag before all of them convene in Indianapolis, in order to make it clear that an impending free agent won’t be free.
That’s the most important thing to remember about the franchise tag. It gives each team the ability to block one player per year from earning on the open market a long-term contract from the cash-and-cap-rich teams.
Last year, only two tags were applied — by the Bengals to receiver Tee Higgins and by the Chiefs to guard Trey Smith. It was the fewest total tags since 2006.
This year, there are several intriguing candidates for the franchise tag (or, in theory, the little-used transition tag).
The list starts with Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III. He finished his 2022 second-round contract with a flourish, gaining 376 rushing yards in three playoff games and winning the Super Bowl MVP award. It would cost the Seahawks $14.1 million to extend Walker’s stay by a fifth year and/or to extend until July 15 the ability to sign him to a long-term deal.
The question for the Seahawks becomes projecting whether another team will break the bank for a running back, and whether Walker (with his name and accomplishments removed from the equation) justifies a major investment moving forward, given the supply-demand realities of the running back position. (In 2006, the Seahawks gave running back Shaun Alexander a market-level deal after his MVP season, and they quickly regretted it.)
Cowboys receiver George Pickens could be headed for the tag, even if he may not be thrilled about it. One year and $28 million falls far short of the market-level, multi-year deal ($40 million per year or more) he may desire.
Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts Sr. will be hitting the market, barring the tag. He had a career high in catches (88) and touchdowns (five), but Pitts has still yet to live up to the potential that made him the fourth overall pick in 2021, one spot above receiver Ja’Marr Chase. It remains to be seen whether the new regime in Atlanta (led by the quarterback who threw passes to Pitts as a rookie) will choose to apply the $16 million tag.
The Eagles sent a third-round pick during the 2025 season to the Dolphins for linebacker Jaelan Phillips. He performed well in Philly, and the Eagles have to decide whether to try to keep him or to let him go, and to collect a potential compensatory draft pick in 2027.
The Bengals may decide to use the tag to keep defensive end Trey Hendrickson around for another year. The price tag ($30.1992 million, based on his 2025 cap number) is high. And there’s lingering acrimony between player and team.
Whatever the final number, the number will likely be far closer to last year’s two than the 2012 record high of 21. That year, the shift in calculation from the 2011 CBA combined with a small bump in the cap due to the lockout made it cheaper to use the tag.
Cheap continues to be the operative word. Teams want to keep their best players without having to pay market rates. And while, in theory, that only impacts the players who don’t get to become free agents, it also holds down the rest of the market by not letting the best free agents get every penny they deserve.
So, yes, the franchise tag stinks for players. But it’s never going away, given that it gives teams the annual ability to keep a highly-talented player around without giving him the contract he has otherwise earned.
The Browns have narrowed their search for a new defensive coordinator to replace Jim Schwartz.
Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com reports that the Browns are choosing among Texans passing game coordinator Cory Undlin, Browns linebackers coach Jason Tarver and Falcons passing game coordinator Mike Rutenberg.
Undlin and Rutenberg interviewed in person this weekend.
Undlin and Tarver have NFL coordinator experience, and both coaches have extensive experience working under Schwartz. That would allow the Browns to keep a successful system in place.
Undlin served as defensive coordinator of the Lions in 2020, and Tarver was defensive coordinator of the Raiders from 2012-14.
Tarver has worked as the Browns’ linebackers coach the past six seasons, including the past three under Schwartz, and Undlin worked under Schwartz from 2016-19 in Philadelphia. Undlin has spent the past three seasons as the Texans’ passing game coordinator.
Rutenberg became the Falcons’ defensive pass game coordinator in 2025 after four seasons as linebackers coach for the Jets.
The Browns are getting closer to finding their defensive coordinator.
Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com reports that they are interviewing a pair of candidates in person this weekend. Texans defensive pass game coordinator Cory Undlin and Falcons defensive pass game coordinator Mike Rutenberg have advanced to this round of the search.
Undlin has worked for the Texans since 2023 and was the secondary coach for the 49ers for two years before moving to Houston. He spent the 2020 season as the Lions’ defensive coordinator.
Rutenberg moved to Atlanta for the 2025 season and worked under Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich for four seasons as the linebackers coach with the Jets.
The Cardinals are hiring former NFL quarterback Matt Schaub as their quarterbacks coach, Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports reports.
New Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur was on staff with Atlanta in 2016 when Schaub was still playing with the Falcons.
Schaub entered the NFL as a third-round pick of the Falcons in 2004, but he didn’t start a game his first three seasons as Michael Vick’s backup. The Falcons traded him to the Texans before the 2007 season.
He played seven seasons for the Texans, one with the Raiders and one with the Ravens before returning to the Falcons.
Schaub made two Pro Bowls, started 93 games, and threw for 25,467 with 136 touchdowns and 91 interceptions.
He served as a football analyst for the Falcons in 2023 before returning to his alma mater, Virginia, as a football analyst.
Now, Schaub will wait to see what the Cardinals do at the position. They are expected to move on from Kyler Murray.
The Falcons haven’t fully committed to Michael Penix as their starting quarterback for the 2026 season at this point, but they gave some hints about how they’ll use Penix or any other quarterback on Wednesday.
Penix has largely played out of the pistol or shotgun since entering the NFL, but offensive coordinator Tommy Rees suggested that would not be the case in the offense that will be installed this offseason. Rees, who came over from Cleveland with head coach Kevin Stefanski, said that his goal as a play-caller is to “keep the defense off balance” and that one way of doing that is by lining up differently.
“You can do it both,” Rees said at a press conference. “I think there’s definite benefits to being under center. That’s been a huge part of the identity of Kevin going back throughout his career. It’s been identity as we’ve worked together and something that we believe in.”
Rees did not comment on the chances of Penix earning the starting role, but he did say the quarterback has “extreme arm talent” and praised his toughness during his first public comments since joining Atlanta’s staff.
The Falcons are hiring Chase Blackburn as their assistant special teams coach, Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports.
Blackburn will work under Craig Aukerman in Atlanta.
The Rams fired Blackburn with two games remaining in the 2025 regular season after a special teams meltdown against the Seahawks.
Blackburn, 42, played 10 seasons in the NFL, winning a pair of Super Bowls with the Giants. His coaching career began in 2016 as an assistant special teams coach with the Panthers. Carolina promoted him to special teams coordinator in 2018, and Matt Rhule retained Blackburn in 2020.
The Panthers fired Blackburn after the 2021 season.
After one season as the Titans’ assistant special teams coach, Blackburn joined the Rams in 2023.
